My New Office and More Driving

Thursday January 23

I am not sure if braver or more settled is the correct term, but whatever the descriptor, I am feeling able to attempt more on my own.  Today I was going to meet Juanita at the Khomasdal campus of University of Namibia-perhaps 6 miles from the house.  She offered to drive to our house and let us follow her.  Instead I told her we would navigate on our own.  I wasn’t willing to drive in the morning—I definitely needed Tony to do that, but I gave him directions, called Juanita when we were off the B1, and made it to the Khomasdal campus without any wrong turns.  We parked in the main lot and when Juanita met us she recommended I drive down the hill to get to her office.  Don’t get too excited yet—driving down to her office is inside the campus compound and the road is narrow enough so there was no need to navigate the correct driving side—still another step for me. 

     Juanita’s office is great-spacious and airy.  It is comparable to the size of my PLU's dean’s office.  She has new cabinets with glass, and apparently she has been waiting a few months for people from maintenance to finish putting in the shelves.  This  weekend she will have her son help with the final touches of these two new units on the side wall of her office so she doesn't have to stack books and binders on the floor.  She also has a great 3 dimensional picture that she designed and created with her son who definitely is artistic.  He did all the drawings and painting and Juanita added fabric and other materials to create a 3 dimensional mural. I know my photo doesn't do it justice but at least you will have visual image.

Juanita's picture/mural

My office will be down the path from Juanita’s.  It’s situated in the original theater building—by the color of the bricks, I think it might have been a black box theater.  My office is part of the new space Juanita and another colleague created to support struggling learners.  There is an open office with a nice size round work table, file cabinets and shelves.  There is a phone hook-up and I will have access to the internet.  It will be a great working space with good lighting from the outside. Next door on one side of me is a small computer and on the other side is a new bathroom.  I am set and when I go on campus for meetings on Tuesday, we’ll get everything set up.  

Outside the building of my office

Tile and stone work in the bathroom

The exciting ending to my morning on the Khomasdal campus is that I drove home! After taking a right hand turn out of the campus there are two quick rights to get to the highway.   I missed the turn for the B1, it happened rather quickly.  So I had to drive a ways before I could turn around comfortably.  Getting onto the highway was the true excitement of my second major driving expereince.  There were about 8 workers wearing red jump suits marking dotted lines on the road.  Tony said their process was similar to laying lines on a soccer field—a chalked string made taught and then marked on the road.  There were a couple of challenges. One was the worker waving a red flag that provided no sense of how to proceed or where to go.  The second issue that I was driving in the merging lane with the workers between me and the highway.  I needed to move onto the highway and so when there was an opening between the groups of workers, I quickly darted onto the main road.  Wow!  There wasn’t really anything protecting the workers from cars. I realize every system is different and was glad I made it home safely and didn't hit anyone getting there.  It feels good to have completed two drives.  We are meeting Paula and Steve for dinner tonight and I am letting Tony drive. I'll drive again tomorrow.